Eldrick Woods is more commonly known as Tiger Woods, or just Tiger. He is an American professional golfer, whose fame spreads far beyond the narrow world of golf. Until recently he was the highest paid athlete in the world, although he has now slipped slightly to second place.

Elite performance coach Dr. Stephen Simpson examines the possible secrets of Woods’s success. In this extract from his latest book, The $447 Million Secrets Of Sport, Dr. Simpson proposes that Woods has discovered the priceless secret of how to find the zone almost at will. The zone is the home of peak performance, also known as flow. Perhaps you could use a bit more flow in your life too?
Golfers are judged by how many Majors they win, and there are four every year. Tiger collected his first Major in 1997 just a year after turning professional, and soon after was ranked as the best golfer in the world too. He retained this position for most of the next 13 years. To date Woods has won 14 Majors, and only Jack Nicklaus with 18 Majors has won more.
Woods has many strengths and one of them is his sheer physical presence. His competitors speak openly of being intimated when playing against him. Woods projects an aura of invincibility, and so often luck runs unerringly in his favour.

Another strength is his enormous physical power and his ability to hit the ball huge distances. This power comes from his intensive training, physical condition, and superb coordination. If players wanted to be able to compete with Woods one of the things they had to do was to match his training programmes. Golfers were until recently not noted for their athleticism.

Meditation is a central foundation of Buddhism, and so Woods would have learnt this skill from an early age. Meditation can be used in many different ways, but arguably its main benefit is that of facilitating control of the mind and the emotions.

Another example of Woods’s mental strength is his ability to close out in the Majors. When he has been outright leader, or sharing the lead at the start of the final round, he has won fourteen times, and only lost once.
Woods’s mother is a Buddhist, and so Woods was raised as a Buddhist too. He believes this has been the central foundation of his phenomenal development as a player and a person, not withstanding his recent difficulties both on and off the golf course.

Meditation is a central foundation of Buddhism, and so Woods would have learnt this skill from an early age. Meditation can be used in many different ways, but arguably its main benefit is that of facilitating control of the mind and the emotions. This is a priceless skill for any athlete to possess, and is the gateway to the zone. This is where mind, body, and soul combine as one, unleashing peak performance. The secret of Woods’s success is that he appears to be able to enter the peak performance mindset known as the zone, almost at will. The key to enter the zone is meditation. The best example I have seen of an athlete describing the zone is from Woods.

He uses phrases such as:

• Blackout moments
• Entrenched in the moment
• My subconscious takes over
• I don’t remember the shot until the ball leaves
• It is a weird thing
• Things slow down
• The last few holes take forever
• I don’t hear anything
• I am so involved in that particular moment
• I get out of the way
• I was sitting back and watching my body

If we did not know that Woods was talking about golf we would think he must be on drugs. He is – these are amongst the most powerful drugs known. They are not bought on the street, but manufactured within our brain. They include the endorphins, so named because their chemical structure is almost identical to morphine. However endorphins have none of morphine’s dangerous side- effects, and are a powerful source of health, happiness, and control the gateway to peak performance.

So how can you find the zone in your life? A good place to start is where Woods started, through meditation. In a future article I will explain how to take the first steps. In the meantime buy a guided meditation audiobook or CD. There are plenty to choose from. Listen to it for about 20 minutes a day, and after a month you will notice changes, and a new calmness. Those closest to you will notice it more. I wish you good luck, and look forward to hearing your results!

About Dr Stephen Simpson

Dr. Stephen Simpson is a medical doctor and specialist. He works as an Elite Performance Coach in sport, business, and personal development. He uses the latest psychological techniques, including NLP, self-hypnosis and meditation, to unlock your hidden potential. These leading edge techniques form the foundation of his accelerated learning system and have delivered outstanding results. His methods are suited to anyone with a commitment to change, and his clients include leading figures from the world of sport, TV, and business.
Dr. Simpson has lived in war-torn Angola, the swamps of Nigeria, the steppes of Kazakhstan and the deserts of Oman. As an international Medical and HR Director he was privileged to work with many world leaders, including Bill Clinton, and was a task force member of the World Econonomic Forum, and Global Business Coalition. During these exciting times he initiated medical programmes in remote areas that to this day continue to deliver high quality medical care to disadvantaged groups. These outreach programmes received widespread international recognition and won prestigious awards. They are still used as case studies of best practice. The HIV programmes alone are instrumental in saving thousands of lives every year.
During this time Dr. Simpson was mugged, imprisoned, shot at, mortared, almost killed in a helicopter incident, experienced near-fatal malaria, the less serious dengue, dysentery, and the dubious delights of Tumbu infection.
He also enjoyed fighting against esoteric tropical diseases, such as Marburg. This is a variety of Ebola, and just about the deadliest disease on the planet. Dr. Stephen was part of the team that responded to the World's largest ever outbreak of Marburg, in Angola.
Summary
Dr. Stephen Simpson is a medical specialist, MBA, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He works as an elite performance coach, and has written and presented many scientific papers at international conferences, as well as making frequent guest appearances on TV and radio. His clients include leading names from the world of sport, business, and the entertainment industries.
Dr. Simpson is also a bestselling book and audiobook author and presenter, achieving Number 1 successes in 8 countries to date; in UK, USA, Australia, Portugal, Italy, Austria, France, and Belgium. Full details of these audiobooks, books, podcasts, and videos can be found on his website http://www.drstephensimpson.com
Additional information about Dr. Simpson:
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine
- General Medical Council Registered Medical Specialist
- Accredited Specialist and Member of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Mind Coach and previously Caddie on PGA European Golf Tours
- Editorial Board Member of Annual Review of Golf Coaching
- Certified NLP Master Practitioner & Trainer
- Certified Karl Morris Master Mind Factor Coach
- Certified HeartMath® Sports Professional
- Regular columnist for The Best You magazine
- Works with Paul McKenna and Dr. Richard Bandler as a member of the trainer assistant team for their international personal development eventshttp://www.drstephensimpson.com

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